The Bugis Street that is gone forever

Like any young man discovering the delights of the East at the end of the ’40s, Dalrymple used to head to Bugis Street

for its enormous, well-tolerated variety, its tropical exuberance, of sexual demeanour.

All that is lost. Singapore has been turned into

an enormous, very well air-conditioned, emporium. Its cavernous entrances expel freezing air into the humid natural heat. People come to shop from thousands of miles away. No doubt this satisfies far more people than Bugis Street ever did, but it is far less interesting.